Let’s be clear: humankind made a conscious decision to engineer the land to produce food. We introduced strategies around soil health, water and fertilizer, to make sure we have food security.
We made a careful determination to scale up production methods so that everyone could afford to eat and go on to become doctors, teachers, artists and plumbers.
This was not a difficult call. Mother Nature could rest easy if we decided at some point not to feed humans.
Even so, we must admit what we’re doing now is not perfect.
People tend to forget to take into account food security provided by production agriculture against its environmental impacts, when they talk about the need to reduce GHG’s.
Another way to lower overall GHG is through viable carbon trading platforms. In effect, farmers who take specific actions could participate in carbon trading markets (ETS) and get paid to store carbon and build soil health.
These trading platforms are based on a global movement among companies and governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
So, what is a carbon offset, anyway? Companies “offset” their carbon dioxide emissions by purchasing credits as tradable certificates. The idea is that the cost works as an incentive for some companies to evolve practices that reduce carbon emissions, and it incentivizes others to reduce emissions by creating a way to monetize those efforts.
Agriculture is one of the few industries which sequester carbon in the course of normal business operations. Accordingly, we must work hard to ensure farmers are compensated for this valuable service.
If you’re really serious about climate change and all you’re doing is selling what we already do to someone else, it’s almost like paying to pollute. It’s not solving the problem.
Critics find it easy to lump all greenhouse gas emissions together, including those coming from ruminants. But they are not all the same.
CO2 and Nitrous oxide (N2O) are considered ‘long-lived climate pollutants’ while methane from cattle is a ‘short-lived’ pollutant. Methane’s half-life is just 10 years, so it degrades in the atmosphere relatively quickly. CO2’s half-life is approximately 1,000 years! Because it lives for so long it accumulates, and that build-up of warming continues to grow as long as we’re emitting CO2. Nitrous oxide’s half-life is 110 years.
The methane that our cows and other livestock put out today will be gone after 10 years.
Plants need carbon and water. Carbon as CO2 in the atmosphere is taken in by plants; that carbon is made into carbohydrates such as cellulose starch, or components in feed, eaten by cows, which then goes into the ruminant’s stomach and there some is converted into methane. So the carbon from methane originates in the atmosphere, goes through plants, then into animals, is then emitted, and becomes atmospheric CO2.
This is known as a biogenic cycle. It’s an important distinction. Oxford University research makes it clear that biogenic methane is not the same as fossil-fuel derived methane. It is the same chemically, but the origin and fate are drastically different.
Fossil-fuel based carbon originates from oil, coal and gas, ancient forests and animals that died a million years ago and got stored in the ground. We extract it and burn it in factories, cars, planes, ships – and by doing so, put it in the atmosphere. Instead of a cycle, this is a one-way street.
This is the main culprit of greenhouse gases in our atmosphere. I have yet to see a climate scientist say it’s the cows who are the primary culprit.
If countries want accurate and realistic greenhouse gas reduction goals, they should separate biogenic methane emissions from others.
Otherwise, we assign an incorrect blame to livestock, and we get rid of part of it or we regulate them out of business. Then the only thing that will happen is that they will go someplace else.
We must ensure that we are using the best practicable options for production in our farming operations and we need to be committed to those best practicable options; for production, high quality research, science and communication to ensure the relationship between agriculture, the environment, and ongoing human life is sustainable.
Andy Loader